Latest word on bridge opening: Later this year

A visit from state transportation officials Monday didn’t offer much new information about when the Long-Allen Bridge will open, or why a rehabilitation project has kept the bridge closed for more than three years.
But the meeting did make it clear that the project has attracted the attention of top state transportation officials.
A meeting at the Morgan City Archives building, followed by a press event on the bridge itself, was attended by Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Glenn Ledet, DOTD Chief Operating Officer Eric Dauphine, District Administrator Nicholas Chachere and project engineer Mark Arceneaux.
Standing on the bridge, Ledet talked about the work on the bridge and the newly launched resurfacing of La. 182 in Morgan City amounting to $40 million.
“That’s a major investment in the Morgan City area,” Ledet said.
Local officials included state Sen. Robert Allain, state Rep. Vincent St. Blanc, Parish President Sam Jones, Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna and Berwick Police Chief JP Henry, representing Mayor Duval Arthur.
The word from the state officials is that they hope the work on the bridge will be complete by the end of the year, weather permitting. And they’re talking about a ribbon-cutting to reopen the bridge.
That was close to earlier estimates that the bridge would be open again sometime this fall.
Officials also repeated what local drivers have been told about the reason for the delay: Work on the 93-year-old bridge uncovered the need to replace more structural steel than anticipated.
“Once you blast,” Arceneaux said at the archives building briefing, “you realize, ‘Oh no, there’s another spot to fix. …’”
The bridge that carries two lanes of La. 182 over Berwick Bay closed in May 2023 for what was to be a two-year, $26 million rehabilitation project performed by Southern Road and Bridge of Tarpon Springs, Florida.
That was seven months after the four-lane Lionel Grizzaffi Bridge, which carries U.S. 90 across the river, was fully reopened after a two-year rehabilitation project extended to three years because of COVID, hurricane threats and supply-chain issues.
Dragna and Henry pointed to traffic jams during the bridge closures, when even minor accidents on one bridge or the other backed up traffic, sometimes for miles. The headaches affect not only everyday drivers but also emergency vehicles that must cross the river.
Dragna also brought up the beams extending across the bridge ramps to establish the maximum height for trucks crossing the span.
“It gets hit quite often,” Henry said, “and when it does, we close down.”
Allain praised the DOTD for quickly responding to road repair requests in St. Mary.
St. Mary Excel has been advocating for the Atchafalaya Gateway Trail. The La. 182 bridge would link walking and biking trails in Morgan City and Berwick and possibly other trails across the parish.
“We’re trying to advance the parish,” said Excel member Monica Mancuso at the briefing, “and we need to know what’s going on.”
Chachere, who administers the DOTD office in Lafayette, briefly compared the local infrastructure to that of north Louisiana.
“I went to the 182 bridge in Amelia,” Chachere said, “and I thought I was in a different country.”
Someone in the conference room got a laugh by responding, “You were.”